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A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm, the Madonnas of Pervyse

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A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm, the Madonnas of Pervyse A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm, the Madonnas of Pervyse Een gedenkteken in Pervijze voor Elsie Knocker en Mairi Chisholm, de Madonna’s van Pervijze 1 Waarom een gedenkteken in Why a memorial in Pervyse for Pervijze voor Elsie Knocker en Elsie Knocker and Mairi Mairi Chisholm? Chisholm? Ik geloof dat Elsie en Mairi een standbeeld I believe that Elsie and Mairi richly deserve verdienen om hun heroïsch en a statue to commemorate their heroic work onbaatzuchtig werk voor België en de for Belgium and the Allies. geallieerden te herdenken. Zij stamden uit een gouden tijd toen mensen, beroemd of They were from a golden age when people niet, deden wat ze deden om altruïstische did what they did for altruistic and noble en nobele redenen. Met uitzondering van reasons. With the exception of aid workers hulpverleners ken ik nu niemand meer die I do not know of anyone now who does doet wat zij deden. Elsie en Mairi zouden what they did. geschokt zijn door het gebrek aan motivatie van vele hedendaagse Elsie and Mairi would be shocked at what beroemdheden, en over hoe hun motivates many celebrities today, and how oppervlakkige levens breed uitgesmeerd their shallow lives are splashed across the worden in tijdschriften en op televisie. pages of magazines and on the television. Elsie en Mairi werden niet betaald voor het werk dat ze in België verrichtten. Zij Elsie and Mairi were not paid for the work gebruikten hun spaarcenten en verkochten they did in Belgium. They spent their hun geliefde motorfietsen om de savings and sold their beloved motorbikes eerstehulppost draaiende te houden en to keep their first-aid post open to rescue gewonde Belgische soldaten op te lappen. Belgian soldiers. They lived close to death Ze leefden dicht bij de dood en in extreem and in extreme danger for nearly 4 years gevaar gedurende bijna 4 jaren. Ze zouden and would have still been at the post in tot het eind van de oorlog op hun post in Pervyse at the end of the war if they had Pervijze gebleven zijn wanneer ze niet not been almost killed by arsenic gas in bijna gedood waren door gifgas in de lente the spring of 1918. van 1918. Dr. Diane Atkinson En nog drie andere redenen: And three more reasons: 1) Als een gedenkteken voor deze 1) As a memorial for these English and Engelse en Schotse vrouwen en Scottish ladies and for what they voor wat zij gedaan hebben voor did for Belgian, British and French Belgische, Britse en Franse soldaten soldiers in Pervyse; in Pervijze; 2) Als een gedenkteken voor alle 2) As a memorial for all the nursing verzorgende vrouwen en mannen women and men who today work in die ook vandaag nog werken in dangerous war conditions all over gevaarlijke oorlogsomstandigheden the world (Syria, Afghanistan, etc.); over de hele wereld (Syrië, Afghanistan, enz.); 3) A memorial as recognition for the 3) Als een symbool van erkenning voor work all women, known and het werk dat alle vrouwen, bekende unknown, did during the First World en onbekende, verricht hebben War. tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog. A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm Dr. Diane Atkinson & Stefaan Vandenbussche 2 Wie waren Elsie Knocker en Mairi Who were Elsie Knocker and Chisholm? Mairi Chisholm? Elsie Knocker (°29 juli 1884 †26 april 1978) Elsie Knocker (July 29th 1884 - April en Mairri Chisholm (°26 februari 1896 - †22 26th 1978) and Mairi Chisholm (February augustus 1981) raakten bekend als “De 26th 1896 - August 22th 1981) became Madonna’s van Pervijze”. known as ‘The Madonnas of Pervyse’. De tiener Mairi Chisholm was afkomstig uit de Schotse middenklasse maar woonde in Dorset, The teenager Mairi Chhisholm was from a Engeland, toen ze in augustus 1914 dienst Scottish middle-class background but nam als motorkoerier en zich aansloot bij het living in Dorset when she enlisted as a Britse medisch team van Dr. Munro dat naar motorbike courier in August 1914, and België kwam. Haar vriendin Elsie Knocker, een joined the British medical team of Dr. Engelse verpleegster en eveneens een Munro that came to Belgium. Her friend motorfanaat, maakte ook deel uit van dat Elsie Knocker, an English nurse and gezelschap. another motorcycle faanatic, also made part of that company. Mairi Chisholm was een achttienjarig blond meisje uit de betere kringen. Ze had een goed gevoel voor humor, maar had geen Mairi Chisholm was eighteen-years-old. verpleegstersopleiding genoten. Ze had geen She was not a trainedd nurse and had no ervaring in wat dan ook, behalve in experience except in driving a motorrijjden. Het was tijdens één van haar motorcycle. During one of her rides, she ritten dat ze kennis maakte met de Engelse met the English woman Elsie Knocker. Elsie Knocker. Het eerste ‘Kelderhuis’ / The first ‘Cellar House’ A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm Dr. Diane Atkinson & Stefaan Vandenbussche 3 Tegen haar moeders wil in, maar mét de steun After war broke out in August 1914 van haar vader, trok ze na het uitbreken van against her mother’s will, but with the de oorlog in augustus 1914 naar Londen om er support of her father, she left for haar diensten aan te bieden. Op haar London to offer her services. On her motorfiets, die ze van haar vader gekregen motorcycle, a present from her father, had, verliet ze het landgoed in Dorset en pikte she left the estate in Dorset and picked ze onderweg Elsie op. up Elsie. Mairi had tien pond spaargeld en wat kleren Mairi took ten pounds of money saved bij. In Dover aangekomen, telegrafeerde ze and a few clothes. Arriving in Dover, laconiek naar huis “Sailing for Flanders”. Ze she telegraphed hoome: “Sailing for verkocht haar motorfiets om de overtocht per Flanders”. She sold hher motorcycle to ferry te betalen. pay for the crossing by ferry. Mairi had een ijzeren fysiek, een haast Mairi had an iron physique, an almost onuitputtelijke werkkracht, een huiselijk inexhaustible energy, a natural talent organisatietalent en rekening houdennd met for running a household and considering haar jonge leeftijd – stalen zenuwen. how young she still was, nerves of steel. Dat maakte haar uitermate geschikt om een That made her ideal to run a dressing verbandpost op te starten en draaiende te station. She was a good driver of the houden. Ze was een voortreffelijke chauffeur large and difficult to manoeuvre van de grote en moeilijk wendbare ambulances. It seemed as if she did not ambulances. Angst leek ze niet te kennen en know fear, she could sleep at will. ze kon slapen op bevel. Het tweede ‘Kelderhhuis’ / The second ‘Cellar House’ A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm Dr. Diane Atkinson & Stefaan Vandenbussche 4 Elsie Knocker was dertig jaar oud en wel een Elsie Knocker was thirty years old and a verpleegster. Zij bedacht het radicale en qualified nurse. She had the radical and revolutionaire idee om Belgische soldaten te bold idea to treat Belgian soldiers at a behandelen in een eerstehulppost vlak bij de first-aid post just yards from the Duitse loopgraven – deze praktijk om German trenches – this practice of gewonden te stabiliseren staat nu bekend als stabilising injuries is now known as ‘the ‘het gouden uur’. De gewonden zouden er golden hour’. The wounded could kunnen bekomen van de shock en ze zouden recover there from shock and receive er de eerste, levensnoodzakelijke, zorgen vital first aid. That idea saved many toegediend krijgen. Dat idee redde veel lives. The risk that they would not levens. De kans dat ze de lange en hotsende survive the long, bumpy ride to the field rit naar het veldhospitaal in Veurne niet hospital in Furnes was much reduced in zouden overleven, zou in veel gevallen veel many cases. kleiner zijn. After a lot of resistance by the British Na veel tegenkantingen van de Britse en and French military authorities, Elsie Franse militaire overheden, kreeg Elsie received permission to put her plans uiteindelijk toch de toestemming om haar plan into practice. The Belgian military doctor in praktijk te brengen. De Belgische legerarts Van der Ghinst, who was stationed in dr. Van der Ghinst, die in Pervijze Pervyse, supported her plans. gestationeerd was, steunde haar plan. In the third week of November 1914, Mairi and Elsie started a medical aid In de derde week van november 1914 richtten station in the ravaged village of Pervyse Mairi en Elsie een medische hulppost in het on the Yser river, close to the front line kapot geschoten IJzerdorp Pervijze in, vlakbij of the Belgian army. The village had de eerste linie van het Belgische leger. Het changed into a shapeless heap of stones dorp was veranderd in een vormeloze hoop with dead horses, cows and sheep stenen met dode paarden, koeien en schapen among the rubble. tussen het puin. Het derde ‘Kelderhuis’ met de deur van Harrods / The third ‘Cellar House’ with the door from Harrods A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm Dr. Diane Atkinson & Stefaan Vandenbussche 5 Pervijze ligt ongeveer halfweg tussen Pervyse is situated about halfway Diksmuide en Veurne, ten westen van de between Dixmude and Furnes, west of the spoorwegberm Diksmuide-Nieuwpoort. Ten railwaybank from Dixmude-Nieuport. At oosten van deze berm, die als een dam the east side of the bank the land was functioneerde, was het land onder water flooded, the railway embankment acted gezet. as a dam to the inundations. A Memorial in Pervyse for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm Dr. Diane Atkinson & Stefaan Vandenbussche 6 Elsie en Mairi namen hun intrek in de kelders Elsie and Mairi installed themselves in the van het eerste ‘kelderhuis’ waar voor de cellars of the first cellar house where oorlog de burgemeester gewoond had, op before the war the mayor had lived, less nog geen 50 meter van de frontlijn.
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